It's now safe to shop for Apple products without fear of getting burned by a last-minute release, at least for the next few months. Apple's senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, told Gizmodo today that "... the holiday lineup is set." Apple typically does this in late autumn to simply let customers know that it's safe to start spending money.

Gizmodo notes that they originally stated, "No more Apple products this year," but they subsequently received a call from Apple asking (by "asking" we mean "telling" ) them to use the language, "The holiday lineup is set." Conspiracy theorists will say that means there could be new stuff still in the pipe, but we think it's just meant to get people in a shopping mood.

[Via The Loop]

One week from today, Microsoft will try to shake the stink of Vista. BusinessWeek reminds the world that Microsoft is set to launch Windows 7 on October 22nd. I've got the day free, since all of my invitations to Windows 7 launch parties seem to have been lost in the mail.

As the spotlight shifts toward Redmond, WA, Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller says that Apple sees "a very good opportunity" in the Windows 7 noise, in an interview with Business Week's Peter Burrows.

While no one expects Windows 7 to be as poorly received as Vista, the new operating system will mark the first time in a long while that millions of PC owners will start looking seriously at replacing existing machines, especially with so many PC-people having skipped the purchase cycle when Vista came around.

And there's where Apple gets them. Or tries to, anyway.

Apple is likely to aim new ads at PC users, trying to pull them to the Mac side in the coming days. The ads will probably hit familiar points, such as the susceptibility to malware worn by Windows, and extra programs buyers get with a Mac out of the box, like iMovie and GarageBand.

The New York Times Bits Blog is reporting that Michael Tchao, a member of the team that brought the Apple Newton MessagePad to market, is going back to work for Apple after a 15-year absence. In Tchao's new job as Vice President of Product Marketing, he'll be reporting to Apple Senior V.P. of Product Marketing Phil Schiller.

For the past 7 years, Tchao has been General Manager of Nike's Techlab, which has been responsible for the Nike + iPod line as well as the online integration that makes nikeplus.com so powerful.

If you wanted to start doing a bit of speculating, it's interesting to note that Tchao was part of the team that was responsible for Apple's first tablet computer. Of course, the Newton platform wasn't exactly a huge success during its 5 years of life, owing primarily to its high price and (at least in the first versions) less-than-stellar handwriting recognition. Tchao wasn't in a marketing position at the time as the General Manager of Product Planning and Strategy for Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics group, and most of the marketing fumbles of the Newton era can be laid at the feet of the Apple execs in charge at the time.

Tchao certainly has the street cred as a tablet computing expert, with 5 patents to his name during his time with the Newton team. Although we don't know for sure at this time if Tchao has been tapped to resurrect tablet computing at Apple, his background both at Apple and Nike Techlab shows that he not only has the technical background to shepherd a new product to market, but the marketing savvy as well.

Welcome back, Mr. Tchao!

[via Mashable]

First, there was the Ninjawords dictionary, and it was good. Well, it would have been good, except it self-bowdlerized in an effort to get accepted into the App Store; and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then, in response to said gnashing/wailing, a voice spoke out of the cloud: Phil Schiller, Apple's senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, sent an on-the-record email to John Gruber discussing the situation. More than the actual explanation (which had to do with the timing of parental controls on 3.0 vs. the release date of this app, and the choice by the developers to clear out the dirty words rather than wait for the option of a 17+ rating), the simple fact of a top Apple exec speaking with some frankness and detail about App Store approvals, to someone with a fairly large soapbox, was quite astonishing.

Now, it seems that Mr. Schiller has clearly located the Send button in Mail.app, because another Philogram has landed in a prominent mailbox. Steven Frank, a co-founder of Mac developer Panic, had announced on his personal blog last week that the Google Voice rejections were the last straw: he was boycotting the iPhone on principle until things straightened out in the App Store. Although Frank is not an iPhone developer, he is an iPhone owner and user.

Over the weekend, much to his shock and surprise, he got an email from Phil. While the full content hasn't been published, the gist was "we're working on it" with regard to the App Store issues.

One point in the email that Frank received which he did repeat has to do with ebook app approvals, a subject we wrote about one week ago. While we were told by the developer of a rejected ebook app that his rejection notice cited the entire category of ebooks on the store, Apple PR quickly responded -- and Phil reiterated to Steven -- that the company continues to approve ebook readers and ebook titles to the App Store. In the case of the app in question, apparently the possibility of iPhone-to-iPhone sharing of book titles was what triggered the rejection, and the rejection email overstated the case and set off alarm bells.

Is this enough to reverse the one-man boycott [as our commenters note, Michael Arrington and Om Malik have also publicly disavowed the iPhone]? Maybe, maybe not. It's one thing to talk about changes and improvements, but another to actually achieve them on the ground and in the store. As an addendum to his post, Frank notes:

Upon further reflection, I think the true litmus test will be how Apple and AT&T formally respond to the FCC inquiry about Google Voice. That is due no later than the 21st; a week from Friday. That decision really cuts to the crux of the whole thing for me, and the great thing (for us users) is everyone has to come out and say something about what happened. No more speculation.

If sending personal emails to people who are frustrated about the App Store is now an official part of Phil Schiller's job description, he may be pretty busy over the next few weeks.

[via Techmeme]

June 8, 2009.

Today's a day filled with incredible anticipation for Apple fans. The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference opens with a keynote by Apple Senior VP of Product Marketing Phil Schiller, who is widely expected to announce the availability of the 3rd generation of iPhone firmware and hardware, provide a release date for Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6), and hopefully throw in a few surprises in the meantime.

While TUAW has no "assets on the ground" inside the keynote (Brett Terpstra will be outside for developer interviews immediately afterward), our team is preparing for full meta-liveblogging of the event. Join us for this event beginning at about 10 AM Pacific Time / 1 PM Eastern Time / 5 PM GMT as TUAW bloggers Steve Sande, Megan Lavey, and Erica Sadun provide you with nonstop coverage of the keynote. You can also follow our event-specific Twitter feed for updates throughout the week at http://twitter.com/tuaw_wwdc.

Welcome to the TUAW liveblog of the Macworld Expo 2009 keynote address. The keynote has ended; to read the full report click 'read more.' Quick summary: iLife 09, iWork 09, 17" MBP, and iTunes (Plus for all, tiered pricing, and buy songs over 3G). We're keeping on covering every bit of Macworld via our front page and show-specific page, so stay with TUAW.

Take a stroll on over to Apple's downloads page and peek at the 5th entry under Top Downloads. What you will find is an entry for iWork '09 -- which has yet to be announced.

We currently don't have any information available as to what changes would be present if iWork or iLife were updated. However, you can bet that if the Philnote features any dazzling effects not previously seen, they are likely a part of the updated suite.

Given that Apple is so secretive this seems like quite the slip up. While not featured in our rumor roundup, we would not be at all surprised for an update to both the iWork and iLife suites to be announced. If you have any hot features you'd love to see in an updated iWork or iLife suite throw them down in the comments.

Thanks Nick for sending this in!

Everyone in the Apple community is eager to see Phil Schiller deliver tomorrow's keynote address at Macworld Expo. While we're uncertain as to what he'll do, we know that he won't be leaping onto an inflatable mattress while holding a laptop. Because he's already done that.

At Macworld Expo '99 in New York City, Phil demonstrated a Tangerine iBook's wifi capabilities and accelerometer by falling from a significant height onto a small mattress below, thus ushering him into "The Demo Hall of Fame." It might not have been the Mother of All Demos, but still pretty cool. Way to take one for the team, Phil!

Click below to watch the video.

[Thanks to the folks at thinkingbricks for pointing this out]

Our favorite-named analyst, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, predicts that Apple will announce new Mac models at Macworld Expo, and a smaller iPhone for the March quarter.

Piper Jaffray expects that Apple will sell 45 million iPhones during 2009, though that estimate is predicated on the fact that Apple will release a lower-cost iPhone model early in the year, priced between $99 and $149.

As for Macworld Expo, the expectation is that there won't be any groundbreaking announcements, since Phil Schiller will be giving the presentation. They do expect new iMac or Mac mini models, however.

Piper Jaffray is maintaining its "buy" rating, and $235 price target, on shares of AAPL. The stock was up slightly during morning trading.

[Via StreetInsider.]

Late yesterday, Apple surprised pundits, fans and presumably IDG by announcing that Macworld Expo 2009 would be their last as an official exhibitor. Along with that news came the announcement that Phil Schiller will deliver the keynote address in place of Steve Jobs. People will speculate about the reasons for Apple's move for some time. Here are my thoughts.

There must be a financial component. Sure, Apple announced $25 billion in cash reserves and no debt at the end of Q4 in October, but it's very expensive to attend these events, even for Apple. Consider the extent of Apple's presence at Macworld Expo, between machines, people, displays, etc. Even software giant Adobe has dropped out.

Of course, it goes beyond the cost of the show. Nearly every year, Apple's stock dips after the keynote presentation when rumored products or services aren't introduced. It's a silly, unfortunate and routine drop... which brings me to point number two.

The rumors themselves. The current iPod nano model was all but revealed prematurely when photos of a case produced by a 3rd party manufacturer appeared online. When Steve Jobs mentioned it at the official press event a few days later, some attendees laughed. Steve responded by saying, "It's not funny" in a stern tone of voice. He was clearly pissed.

That wasn't the first time Apple had been scooped by the media. In 2002, the Canadian edition of Time Magazine leaked a cover photo of Steve and Jon Ive with the G4 iMac just prior to its introduction at Macworld Expo. You'll also remember that Apple aggressively pursued rumor site Thinksecret last year, and it's currently offline. Not only do rumors hurt the company financially, they take some of the excitement out of product updates, and in turn, the media's enthusiasm. When the media basically knows what's coming, their interest wanes just enough. Apple wants more control.

Control over product schedules outside the constraints of Expo keynotes. Once Apple steps away from the tick-tock of January showcases, it will be able to stage a press event and introduce a product or service when it's actually ready, not when a certain calendar date arrives.

Finally, I've always found the timing to be odd. The first week of January is right after all the major winter holidays. People are tapped out financially and enjoying the loot they picked up the in weeks before from family and friends. Asking them to spend another grand on a computer just then isn't ideal. Alternatively, Apple has consistently released iPod updates in September, just as kids are going back to school.

The inevitable question is one of Steve's health, but I think John Gruber got this one right. If Steve was ill, they'd send in a proxy like Phil but keep the rest of the game intact. The fact that they've abandoned the whole thing says to me that it's a political and financial move more than anything else.

Time Magazine asks the health question right away in their reaction article, quoting an Apple spokesperson as saying, "Phil is giving the keynote because this is Apple's last year in the show, and it doesn't make sense for us to make a major investment in a trade show we will no longer be attending." Even if Steve is as healthy as a horse but still looks thin, his appearance could have an affect on the company's stock. I don't think I've ever seen a company whose financial well being is so closely tied to the health of its CEO.

For now, at least, IDG plans to put on Macworld Expo 2010, with or without Apple. I say more power to them, but as a person who attended two Macworld Expos in Boston without Apple, my faith is waning.

It is a bit sad that Steve won't wrap up the final Macworld Expo; we can hope that he'll make a special appearance as Phil Schiller's One More Thing.

In a surprise announcement, Apple said that next month's Macworld Expo will be its last. The company doesn't plan on exhibiting at the event after 2009.

Also, Steve Jobs will not be giving the keynote address, handing that honor to Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide product marketing. It will be Apple's final keynote address at the event.

In a press release, Apple said it has scaled back its presence at other trade shows, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo, and Apple Expo in Paris.

This will be the 25th Macworld Expo. Steve Jobs had given the keynote address since 1997, when he returned to the company as interim CEO.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Most of the videos I have seen of the iPhone don't show it in action, but this video really gives you an idea of how you interact with this little device. Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, pulls out all the stops for CBS News and runs the iPhone through its paces.

Say what you will about the iPhone, but as I watched Phil navigate through its interface I couldn't help but think it was all special effects. Good special effects at that.

Oh, and you eagle eyed readers out there might recognize a large man wearing a red shirt in the back ground during the opening of this piece (hint, it's me).

[via the Mac DevCenter]